GAZA, June 15: Israel has agreed in principle to hand control of the West Bank town of Jenin to the Palestinians to help them secure the region after Israel evacuates nearby settlements in August, Palestinian leaders said on Wednesday. With a summit between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approaching on June 21, their negotiators pursued talks to wrap up security deals stalled for weeks by mistrust stoked by ceasefire violations.

Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman arrived to help shepherd the sides to agreement. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due in at the weekend to lend a hand.

Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Dahlan spoke of ‘diplomatic movement’ to make a success of the summit and pullout. The Palestinians demand Israel lift a security grip on their areas. Israel says this depends on Palestinians subduing armed groups.

Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei warned that Palestinians’ ultimate goal of statehood was ill-served by lawlessness plaguing the West Bank and Gaza. His cabinet would quit if it failed to impose order, he said, without giving a timeframe.

“Chaos is not resistance (to occupation) and will not bring victory,” he said in a speech to university students in Nablus.

“Chaos can go to hell. Those who benefit from chaos can also go to hell. Starting from today the cabinet will hold itself to account. If the cabinet succeeds in imposing security and the rule of law, it will stay. If it fails, it will go home.”

Palestinian interior ministry spokesman Tawfiq Abu-Khoussa said the sides had reached a tentative deal on the basics of a Jenin handover before Israel evacuates four adjacent Jewish enclaves and all 21 settlements in Gaza.

“This will allow a concentration of Palestinian forces in Jenin in order to take over the areas Israel vacates,” he said.

Israeli security sources said progress had been made on handing over Jenin to Palestinian police whom Mr Abbas is trying to reform. But they said no timetable had been set and any move would hinge on security men disabling armed factions.

Mr Abu-Khoussa said Palestinian forces, in keeping with Israeli wishes, would move into the four northern West Bank enclaves to keep order once the settlers were out. Several hundred settlers are to be evacuated, along with all 8,500 from Gaza.

The plan Mr Sharon bills as ‘disengagement’ would mark the first uprooting of Jewish enclaves from territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East wars and which Palestinians seek for a state under a US-devised peace plan. —Reuters